Economic Justification for Better Maintenance in a Safety System

It is not difficult to think of numerous ways in which human factors might impact functional safety. For example, imperfect repair, improper calibration, faulty installation, etc. can all contribute to decreases in functional safety performance. However, if actions are to be taken to mitigate these impacts then it is essential to have some quantitative measure of how this impacts the PFDavg, so that the actions’ effectiveness can be assessed. We will show how a simple measure system called the Site Safety Index^TM (SSI) is used to adjust safety metrics, including the PFDavg and the MTTFS, on a site specific basis. The lifecycle economic impact of these metrics is then used to show how improved operations and maintenance can be justified. Economic justification for better maintenance can be easily verified through this approach being further mindful of the safety culture.